


Alice Between The Earth-Bones

by Alpherae



Series: A Kettle Full of Corks [1]
Category: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Related Fandoms, Elder Scrolls
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 10:52:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3566963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alpherae/pseuds/Alpherae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The aftermath of her strange adventures had been maddening for a curious child. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alice Between The Earth-Bones

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first posted fic, and no beta, so constructive criticism is _very_ welcome.
> 
> (Edited 26/4/15 for consistency)

> _Sing a song of Mazken, a kettle full of corks,_  
>  _Nine-and-ninety Aureal, and ten-and-twenty forks._  
>  _Skipping through Xedilian, His mercy for to lack,_  
>  _Brellach Hall to Pinnacle, dancing there and back._

Alice always said later that it was luck that everything happened as it did, for if she had ducked away from her nurse just a little sooner she would have been found before anything could happen, but any later and she might not have got away at all. As it was, she managed to run into the forest just as the gardener turned ‘round the corner of the house, and was soon following the path to the mushroom glen. It was not much of a forest, but Alice felt that it wished to be one and addressed it so to be courteous. Long ago, her great-grandfather had planted hazelnut trees all along the river for wood to make dancing puppets and jigsaw puzzles, but no one else in his family cared for such things, and now the trees spread wild branches over the grass and the gardener said words Alice wasn’t supposed to hear as he pulled out the seedlings.

One of Great-Grandfather’s puzzles had belonged to Alice, but they took it and put it up high in a cupboard because she spent more time making up stories about the odd little characters than putting the puzzle together. They had taken away Dinah and her kittens as well, because Alice would rather talk to her pets than dress up nicely and sit with Great-Aunt Cicily, whose only topic of conversation was how children these days were so terribly ugly and stupid. The chess set and the pack of cards were both gone too, and the only books she was allowed to read were improving ones with no conversations or pictures that might aggravate her imagination.

If Alice’s sister had still been there, it might have been different. At the very least, she might have been able to explain to poor Alice why everything had become so terribly dull, but the older girl had been sent off to boarding school. Alice was to be sent off too but she had climbed out the window while Nurse was searching for her second-best scarf, which was why she was walking along the narrow path through the forest, trying to play Rock-Paper-Scissors with herself.

“How odd it is,” she said to herself. “That my left hand is cleverer than my right hand at playing games, when my right hand is cleverer at making pictures.” This was true, at least when the games didn’t end in a draw, but her right hand _would_ try to cheat when she wasn’t looking, and she was so intent on keeping the game fair that it was some time before Alice looked up and realised that the path should have reached the glen by now. 

“I’m certain this is the right way, for it looks quite as it should,” she said, looking behind. “And yet, I’m sure it was never so long as this before.” She could still hear Nurse calling in the distance, so she decided to continue walking in case someone came looking for her. Following a bend in the pathway, she came to a little open space between the trees.

There, by the side of the path, sat three curious people. The first was large and round, and so still that at first Alice wondered if she was a statue like the ones that stood beside the river all smeared with moss, but then the statue’s eyes blinked open and she smiled at the little girl. The second person looked very sharp and angular; “rather like the Red Queen without her crown,” thought Alice to herself. She sat with her back against the shoulder of the first, a pile of ripe hazelnuts on one side and a pile of husks on the other, opening the nuts with a short, slim knife. The third person was the strangest of all, and Alice thought that all three were _very_ strange. She was stretched over a large rock where the sun was brightest, lying as flat as a fork, and looked very much like one of the small lizards that Dinah would chase along the kitchen wall.

“If you please,” asked Alice timidly, “Is this the way to the mushroom glen? I seem to have lost the path.”

“Seems to me you’ve found one,” the Statue said thoughtfully, “but perhaps it’s going in the wrong direction?”

“If it is mushrooms you are after,” the sharp one added, “what if it is the right path, but not the right glen? Mushrooms are not something to be uncertain about, youngling.”

The Lizard said nothing, but she opened a bright brown eye and twitched her tail.

“If you don’t mind, my name is Alice,” said Alice. She was a little afraid of the strangers, but it was quite the most interesting conversation she had had all summer so she decided to continue speaking with them. She had been looking for an adventure, after all. 

The Statue grinned. “Pleased to meet you, Alice. I’m Mog, and this is Nabi, and the one on the rock is Hahnu. We’re just passing through.”  

Nabi tucked the knife into her sleeve and held out a handful of hazelnuts. “Do you like nuts?” Alice took one of the nuts to be polite, and smiled shyly at the Lizard, who opened the other eye and shifted to rest her chin on her arms.

“Is there any particular reason you are looking for mushrooms?” Mog asked.

“Well,” Alice said, “It’s a rather complicated story…” “

All stories are complicated,” said Nabi sternly. “If it is simple, then you are not looking deep enough. That does not mean it needs to be long.”

“Oh!” said Alice, so she thought for a moment about what had been happening, and what she had been told, and overheard. Then she began to tell her new acquaintances about playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with herself along the path, and running away from her nurse, and being scolded for too much imagination, and hearing the adults discussing what was to be done with her, “and Ada said that I was to be sent to B-Bedlam for telling stories.”

“What’s Bedlam?” asked Mog.

“Ada says it’s a terrible place, a mad-house, where they send everyone who doesn’t behave as they should, to teach them better,” whispered poor Alice, and she shivered with fright. Mog said, “There, there,” and pulled a very large, very soft, very red blanket from a bundle behind a tree and wrapped it around her. Nabi clicked her tongue and, taking Alice's hand, poured the last of the hazelnuts into her palm. Hahnu said nothing, but she slid off her rock and ambled over to sit beside Alice on the grass, and wrapped her arms around the little girl, blanket and all, and hummed and stroked her hair until Alice felt as though she was one of Dinah’s kittens curled up beside the old mother-cat.

“As to that,” Mog told her, once they were convinced that Alice was happy again, “There are mad-houses and Mad-Houses, if you get my meaning, just as there are mushrooms and mushrooms. And behaving as one should is vastly overrated. Much more fun to behave as you wish.”

“Are there places where I might behave as I wish?” asked Alice. It sounded like a very nice idea, but there had been too many times recently when she had been told that she must be seen but not heard, except when she was spoken to (in which case she was to be polite and not argue or complain or tell lies), and to sit quietly on a chair in the corner keeping her dress clean like a good little girl. For someone like Alice, who would much rather run about and play, and make up stories about her toys, it had been more than a little infuriating. The other three looked at each other thoughtfully.

“You might,” Nabi began slowly, “you might come back with us to the Isles. There, only Lord Sheogorath decides what may or may not be done. As long as you do not catch his attention, or that of his seneschal, he will not care two pins for your actions.”

“You’d like New Sheoth,” Mog added. “The court of Mania is bright as elytra dew, and people come from all over to visit the Duke’s garden. He’d be happy as a crab to have someone new to play with.”

The Lizard stood up and stretched, and then she paused, holding up one clawed finger as she tilted her head like a bird. Alice listened, and her nurse’s voice could be heard echoing through the trees, calling her name.

The little girl scrambled to her feet. “Oh!” she said. “Nurse is looking for me. She would never let me go away.” Mog and Nabi looked at each other and frowned, but Hahnu bent and lifted Alice’s chin with sharp fingers that prickled like kitten claws. She looked the little girl over carefully, and nodded.

“I think this will do,” the Lizard hissed. She took two steps back, looked towards the trees where Alice’s nurse could be heard, and shouted. Nabi flinched and glared at her friend, and Mog’s eyes crossed. Alice slapped her hands over her ears in shock and shuddered from head to toe. At first, she thought she had jumped back towards the path, and then she thought she had stumbled over the grass towards Mog. Finally, she looked around, and realised that she had done both at once, and now there were two Alices standing in the glen, staring at each other.

“Oh dear,” said the Alice on the path. “I don’t think I like this at all!” And she ran out of the glen and back up the path out of sight, without once looking back. The Alice standing on the grass looked on in astonishment. “Is that me? She looks like me, but if _she’s_ Alice then... who am I?”

“That,” Hahnu said, “is Alice-who-does-not-wish-to-come. The little one next to Mog is also Alice, Alice-who-does-wish-to-come. _If_ the little one has not changed her mind…?”

Alice looked up at Mog, who grinned like the Cheshire Cat. “It’s up to you, lass. I would, if I were you, but I’m not so you’ll have to pick.”

Nabi smiled as well, sharp as a needle. “I would, but it is your choice to make.”

The Lizard did not smile, but she tilted her head again and held out her hand. Alice thought for a moment, about chess-set queens and playing cards, about Dinah and her kittens and jigsaw puzzles and hazelnuts. She placed her hand in the other's callused palm, and shivered as dry, scaly fingers wrapped around her wrist. Hahnu swept her up into the air and onto Mog’s shoulder, while Nabi picked up the blanket and the bundle behind the tree.

The little girl laughed for delight as they followed the path deeper into the forest, and the sky turned pink and the hazel trees gave way to giant mushrooms. Far behind them, toward the river, Nurse began to scream. 

> _The duke is in the courtyard, green-mote in his hair,_  
>  _The duchess in the dungeon, teaching fish to fear._  
>  _Be polite to Haskill and learn to bend your knee,_  
>  _Say good-bye to Passwall, it’s time to sing to Me._


End file.
